For example, JP 2005-136132 A (Patent Document 1) discloses a technique for promoting the resistance of a laminated ceramic capacitor to thermal stress.
More specifically, Patent Document 1 discloses a laminated ceramic capacitor including, as a main body section, a laminated body formed by arranging dielectric layers each between a plurality of internal electrodes to be stacked in the stacking direction, and placing a dielectric around the plurality of internal electrodes, characterized in that a pair of upper and lower margin sections (outer layer sections) without any internal electrodes present is each placed between end surfaces (principal surfaces) located in the stacking direction of the laminated body and the internal electrodes closest to the end surfaces (principal surfaces) located in the stacking direction, a pair of right and left margin sections (width-direction gap sections) without any internal electrodes present is each placed between end surfaces (side surfaces) located in a crossing direction with respect to the stacking direction of the laminated body and the ends of the internal electrodes, the upper and lower margin sections (outer layer sections) and the right and left margin sections (width-direction gap sections) each have a dimension of 50 to 200 μm, and the difference in dimension between the upper and lower margin sections (outer layer sections) and the right and left margin sections (width-direction gap sections) falls within 20% of the dimension of the upper and lower margin sections.
Patent Document 1 reports that a laminated ceramic capacitor which has high resistance to thermal stress is supposed to be achieved even when a large number of internal electrodes are stacked. While thermal shocks are applied to laminated ceramic capacitors in, for example, solder reflow mounting, a thermal stress test at 280° C. is carried out in an example described in Patent Document 1, and thus, the ability to bear this thermal stress test means the ability to withstand thermal shocks in solder reflow mounting.
However, there has been a growing demand for a higher level of thermal shock resistance in recent years. For example, in cases such as a laminated ceramic capacitor used near an automobile engine room, or a substrate with a laminated ceramic capacitor mounted thereon, which is further joined with some sort of substrate by welding or the like, there is a demand for a higher level of thermal shock resistance. The technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 may fail to deal with some of such cases, and as a result of thermal shock, laminated ceramic capacitors may suffer structural defects such as cracks.
While laminated ceramic capacitors have been described above, laminated ceramic electronic components other than laminated ceramic capacitors can encounter the same problem.
Patent Document 1: JP 2005-136132 A